Reaching Out
by CheekyBrunette
Summary: Sometimes what Jeff sees in Nick scares him.  The way he's always throwing out apologies and pleasing others doesn't show near enough confidence for Jeff's liking.  Just a cute little confrontation and snuggles all around.  Niff


**Okay, this one is written for my home girl, because she can't seem to see that me and pretty much everyone else on earth love her to bits and pieces.**

**So note to her: Some of the Warblers MAY represent other friends of ours, and as usual, I am Jeff and you are Nick. Because I'm ALWAYS Jeff and you're ALWAYS Nick. So, like… not confusing, but whatever. Also, I love you, but I also don't want to be in a slash pairing with you. That part is for the good of the story and for my Niff problems.**

**Oh, and Nick isn't anything like you at the end, but I do want Nick to be NICK since this is technically about him too, so…**

Jeff didn't exactly know what to do with Nick Duval. He had known him for… a while, he supposed. The blonde couldn't draw up any kind of memory of the other boy from middle school except for one lone party at Trent's house, but he knew he had probably been there somewhere. Apparently, they had the same bracket of friends, so it was weird that their lives had never really paralleled until they had the same English class freshman year.

Even so, Jeff _still_ hadn't really known Nick due to absences on both parts, leaving their meetings scarce and few in numbers. It was _weird_ when they started rooming together after their shared transfer sophomore year to Dalton. Like… really weird. Because Dalton was small, so Jeff was seeing Nick all over the place, not just in their dorm. They had more than one class in common, and it's not like you could ever truly miss a day at Dalton…

Naturally, their friendship started out kind of lame. Trent -or maybe it was Thad- had introduced them and pointed out their equal love of Harry Potter, so that had basically been their relationship. Harry Potter. It wasn't _so_ abnormal. Most friendships Jeff had been a part of _always_ started with that whole, uncomfortable part where they only talked because of one lame, not funny 'inside joke'. It _was _however, a bit awkward on Jeff's part because while he liked wizards and witches, Nick _loved them_. Like… a lot.

He knew everything. The kid could honestly quote every movie, and he was always talking about random snippets of things that Jeff didn't quite understand but did enjoy. So, it wasn't too bad. Plus, Jeff could fake an obsession well enough due to how crazy he got with basically everything else, and he was learning as they hung out.

Anyway.

Over the course of time, Jeff grew more into Harry Potter _and_ more into Nick. Soon, it didn't actually matter if Jeff knew a lick of trivia about HP because they just kind of… _worked_. Like, they still talked about it all the time because Nick had made a crazed fanboy out of him, but Jeff also just sort of clicked with him.

Actually, Nick was a really easy person to click _with_. Not to be gay, but Jeff pretty much thought he was absolutely adorable with everything he did, and what with the way he and Trent flailed over his cuteness when he was and wasn't around was proof enough that others did too. Also, Nick was pretty aimed to please. He was always doing what others needed him to do and apologizing when he couldn't or didn't…

And it scared Jeff to _death_.

Like… Gosh, Nick, why? The blonde didn't want to breathe down his neck –even though he probably already was- but really? If he said sorry one more time for absolutely no reason or did something that he didn't have to just because someone asked, Jeff would be forced to kill him. It was _scary_…

Okay, maybe to most that wouldn't sound like a bad thing, but it sort of was. Like, not from a "grow a backbone" perspective because it was evident to Jeff that he already had one, what with how vehemently Nick could say no sometimes, but from a self-esteem point of view. It didn't show a lot of confidence, all his apologizing and his bending to other people's will. Jeff would consider him and Nick pretty tight –at least, he hoped they were, everyone but Nick seemed to think so- so it worried him greatly.

Oh, yes, Nick didn't seem to think so. At least, to Jeff anyway… Sometimes he felt like Nick didn't actually hang out with him because he wanted to, but because _Jeff_ wanted him to. Like, honestly… Jeff sort of liked Nick. Like… _liked _him, liked him. He loved chilling with him and belting out lyrics to Disney music in their room, but he didn't want to, like, _force_ him to be there, and it was scary how easy that would be…

And as Jeff and Nick slowly became JeffandNick, the blonde only got more and more worried. He had always been sort of shy, but Jeff was now noticing how alone Nick could manage to be in a room full of people. He wasn't shut off, exactly, just… scared. Jeff didn't want Nick to be scared. Nick was Jeff's. He lov- okay, not that word. Not yet. But he really, really liked Nick, and he didn't want to see him so fearful about other people or about himself when there wasn't anything to be worried about.

It felt like an angsty Harry Potter fanfiction story, really. Like, Jeff was positive he could find one about Harry and Ron _just like this_. (And yes, it was a weird pairing, but Jeff shipped it whole-heartedly. If Harry was going to be with anyone, Jeff would not allow it to be Ginny. The girl was a skank and sort of a moron. N-no. Ron was Harry's one and only love, even _if_ he trounced around with Hermione. Well, maybe he could be with Sedrick… but only because there was something morbidly poetic about you're one true love dying in your arms.)

Jeff was thinking about this when he suddenly realized Nick was talking to him. "And- Oh, sorry, I'm probably bothering you. Never mind." Oh, crap. Every time he was deep in thought and missed the first half of what Nick said, that was where his mind went and out came Jeff's most hated words in the planet.

"No, Nick, I'm sorry. I was dazing off, what where you saying?" he asked, hoping for an answer, but Jeff _knew_ what was coming.

"No, no. It's fine. I interrupted you; just forget it," he said, and gosh, _why_? The stuff that came out of his mouth was so sad, but his face looked so freaking earnest it _hurt_. Jeff could punch a wall. Every time. Every time, Jeff apologized and went in to listen, but Nick just cut himself off and smiled like it was okay and he didn't have anything to say at all. Well, he _did_, and Jeff wanted to know what it _was_.

"No, it's not fine. I want to know what you were saying," Jeff said, and Nick just smiled awkwardly up at him from his spot on the floor of their room, notes piled neatly and close around him as he studied. Ugh, no. Jeff had just barely been grazing over his math notes on his bed as he thought about this whole situation. Nick was good at school. Jeff was not.

"Jeff, it's _fine-_" Nick tried to persuade him, and Jeff was growing frustrated. How could this kid not understand that he loved him?

"Seriously, Nick? Say that one more time and I'm going to slap you across your face." Okay, so maybe that didn't exactly portray _love_, but that's just the way Jeff was. He blamed Trent. Despite his cutesy, angelic smile, that kid was all about threats. And sass. But mostly threats… It must have rubbed off a bit. Nick frowned.

"I was just gonna ask if you wanted me to teach you the subjunctive stuff we were learning in French now," he said, and Jeff cursed how looking up at someone always made for giant eyes because Nick looked so cute right now, so how in the world was he supposed to hit him? Because Jeff really wanted to hit him… Maybe this was the part of Nick that he had found initially likeable, but he was really starting to hate it. Gah, it just made him _nervous_.

"Oh, Nick…" he sighed, and he watched as the other boy's eyebrows knit together, making him look painfully adorable. The kid _so_ did not play fair.

"What?" he asked, sounding utterly confused. Jeff just sighed again, thinking carefully before he spoke. He had been through this conversation a million times, enough that the guy from _Groundhog Day_ would be impressed, but it never worked out in his favor. Nick always seemed to win, and it was cruel. Cruel for both of them. Jeff threw himself off the bed and sat cross-legged in front of Nick on the floor, mirroring him. He settled on throwing back a question of his own.

"Why do you always have to be like that?" he asked, and if it was possible, Nick furrowed his brow even more.

"What do you mean?" Nick responded, and Jeff thought for a little bit. He didn't want to be insulting; he really didn't. Nick was one of his best friends, if not _the_ best, so he didn't want to hurt his feelings, but this was sort of something serious that Jeff felt like they both had been ignoring or pushing aside for a while. He just wasn't seeing… he wasn't seeing how much he cared, and that wasn't fair.

"I mean, like… Why do you always let it be about every one but yourself?" he asked, and Nick just kind of looked at him –deer in headlights- for a moment before his gaze fell to the floor and he pulled one knee up to his chest. He wasn't answering, so Jeff decided to throw out a couple more questions. "Like… is it because you don't like yourself? Or are you scared that other people won't like you? Because… Nick. You shouldn't be worried about that. You're cute as a button and the nicest thing ever, but sometimes you're a bit _too_ nice, and it kind of scares me."

Jeff chewed on his bottom lip and watched Nick's face, waiting for him to do or say something. Anything. But he wasn't doing anything. He was just looking at the floor, big brown eyes focused but distant, and Jeff _really_ hoped he was hearing him. He never heard him.

"Nick… I don't want you to say sorry anymore. I don't want you to feel like you have to. I certainly don't want you to say all those bad things about yourself. You're fantastic at singing. It's like an art form when it's you, and it's terrible to here you think you're bad at it. Like… Mr. Three compared to my what? Six? Yeah, and you call_ me_ good." Nick looked up at him for a millisecond, and Jeff knew just what he was thinking. "Mmhmm. I remember you complaining in the hall one day. I couldn't forget it; it was so ridiculous. I hate when you say bad things about yourself, Nicky. Like not getting a date to prom or complaining about how you look. You're amazing."

Ugh, that felt awkward to say. Everything felt awkward for Jeff to say. He meant every word of it, but… ugh. _He meant every word of it_. People weren't supposed to just… _say _such truthful stuff like that. However, since things were already uncomfortable, he might as well really seal the deal.

"Nick… I think that you're kind of incredible actually, and… and could you look at me for a second?" he asked, trying to remember how to breathe as Nick's eyes slowly met his own. Oh gosh, Jeff had forgotten how beautiful he was. He couldn't do this, he couldn't do this, he couldn't- "I think I love you," the words tumbled out, and it honestly took all of Jeff's will power not to slap a hand over his mouth. Instead, he reached both out to take Nick's.

It was a painfully long time before Nick actually did anything. He just kept looking at him with his big, brown doe eyes, and Jeff was feeling increasingly small as the seconds ticked on. Oh crap… why did he say that? How could he be so stupid? Nick was… Nick! And maybe he didn't see how completely out of his league he was, but gah… Jeff did. He definitely did. Why did he say something? _Why?_

Suddenly, Nick flung himself into Jeff's arms, and it took the blond a minute to register it and hug back. It took him another minute to realize that the boy of his dreams was crying –hard- before he snuggled him in a bit closer and tilted his head so his nose buried into the shorter boy's hair as Nick hid his face in his shoulder. Crap, this was so scary. What part was he crying about? Jeff crossed fingers, hoping it wasn't because he was worked up over telling him how he didn't like him back… anything but that…

An eternity later, Nick pulled away a bit, still hiccupping but not as hard as before. "Jeff, I-I-," he struggled to speak, which made Jeff freak out that much more. It was so hard to be patient. "I love y-you, too, but I-I-" Jeff felt his heart sink.

"Don't love me in _that_ way?" he finished, heartbroken, but Nick shook his head against his words.

"N-no. Jus' in that way, But 'm so- so- so…" He trailed off, sobbing again, and Jeff's heart broke for a different reason entirely. He wrapped the other boy up again, holding him tight and inwardly swearing to never let go.

"No you're not, Nickpea…" Jeff said, hating how exhausted his voice sounded, but there wasn't much he could to about it. He was tired, tired of how hard this was for Nick, and tired of how stressed it made him. Sometimes caring sucked… Nick trembled a bit at his words, and Jeff pushed him back to look at his face. Nick tried to turn his head, but it didn't matter. Jeff studied him for a moment anyway before pulling him into his lap, stroking Nick's hair from his forehead as he held him close.

"Jeff, I-"

"You're really not, Nicky," he repeated, and brought their lips together, his back rolling into it as Nick pulled away slightly before falling into the kiss. He tasted weird… Like, sweet how Jeff thought he would, but salty because of the tears. It was a good kind of weird. After a second, he pulled away because first kisses were supposed to be chaste and sweet, and Jeff didn't want to ruin that for either of them.

"I do love you," Nick said quietly, his tears all but gone. Jeff nodded, a smile pulling on his lips, and his mind was on an endless loop of the same string of consciousness. _Oh my gosh, there's a beautiful boy in my lap, and he's going to be completely mine!_ The taller boy laced their fingers together and gave him a crazy kind of kiss on the cheek, so hard it knocked his head away for a second, and Nick laughed despite the tracks of his tears still clear on his face.

"And now you know I love you, too," he said brightly, and Nick grinned.

"Yes. You love me, too," the younger boy responded, and there was something somewhat disbelieving in his tone, but Jeff wasn't concerned. It was the kind of way you spoke when spending a day with *insert famous person here* after winning a contest. Like… you couldn't believe that you were that lucky and that such awesome things were really happening to you, not in a depressing "no one can ever love me" way. "Are we together?" Nick asked, sounding too cute and too hopeful to be legal. Jeff nodded.

"Forever," he answered in a clichéd sort of way, and then reached around Nick to grab a sheet of loose-leaf from the floor, squinting at the carefully written notes. For such a perfect guy, Nick sure had crappy handwriting. "Are you telling me that I have to memorize irregular verbs?" he asked, successfully breaking the deep kind of mood they had rolling there, and Nick snatched the paper away.

"Yes, but you're not ready for that yet," he told him, putting a hand on his forehead and pushing his face away until Jeff found himself flat on the floor, despite his effort to stay upright. He huffed and blew his hair out of his eyes.

"Are you telling me that I'm not smart enough to memorize an irregular verb?" he asked with an undignified yelp, and Nick shook his head.

"No, I'm _saying_ that you have to know_ what_ you're memorizing first; however, what I'm thinking…" he trailed, off, leaving Jeff to fill in the blanks, and the blonde pouted, crossing his arms over his chest, and he looked up at the ceiling, still on the floor.

"Well. Maybe I don't want to learn from you, Mr. Smartypants," he said, hating how he sounded like a whining two-year-old –curse his oddly high voice- but he completely forgot to be frustrated when Nick was suddenly pressed into his side, lying on the ground next to him.

"Who else are you going to learn from? We quiz tomorrow!" he replied, and Jeff pondered this.

"Trent," he answered, and Nick just laughed straight in his face, pointing and everything.

"He takes German!"

"You take German."

"You're _mom_ takes German."

"You're _face_ is German."

"… That's is sort of racist."

"You're sort of racist!"

They bickered for a bit before settling back into the world of French verbs, and he'd be lying if Jeff said he didn't want to tear his hair out by the end of it. Curse the French and their nonsensical language of confusing! However, it was all worth it if he got to thread his finger's through his Nick's and watch him be him for a little bit before he got all timid again. Yeah, that would make any night a good one.

Obviously, Jeff obviously had a bunch of great evenings to come.

**Woot! Done. That took way shorter than I expected. Only, like, 2 hours and twelve minutes. That's NOTHING, actually. Especially cause this was 3053 words… Okay. So next order of business ****looks at list*******

**Delayed Regret**

**Some Wild Behavoir  
>Logan!Doctor fic thing… Whatever.<br>Delayed Regret**

**Bully fic of some kind…**

**Wrong Since Birth**

**There. That's awesome. Now that I have a list, things are sure to get done, and it'll be AWESOME. Go team! And also, now that the public can SEE said list, it'll be DOUBLE awesome because I'll feel like I need to follow it.**

**Also, last thing, I swear. I wrote this whole thing to "Blue Christmas" by Damian McGinty, and it was AMAZING! **


End file.
